Injury Updates: New York and Boston

June 10, 2011

After a three and a half hour rain delay in New York, the Yankees and Red Sox are only in the 4th inning of the final game to this series. Boston has won the first two, and five straight in New York in 2011. Both teams have been dealing with their fair share of injuries lately. Let’s recap.

New York:

We may as well begin with the latest news first as Joe Girardi announced during his pre-game press conference that setup man Joba Chamberlain has a torn ligament in his right elbow and will likely need Tommy John surgery. As for how this affects the team, Benjamin Kabak of River Ave. Blues sums up the viewpoint of many Yankee fans these days.

Also thanks to RAB we have word that Phil Hughes is beginning a throwing regimen and will likely make his first rehab start next week. Presuming he’ll need most, if not all, of the 30-day window for rehab stints in the minors that puts Hughes back in New York mid to late July. Ben suggests the team could keep him in the bullpen – where he had great success as the primary setup man for Mariano Rivera en route to the 2009 World Series – but I think his timing could prove beneficial to the starting rotation. We’ve all wondered how much longer Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon can keep things up. Hughes could take over for one of them in the rotation, limiting the need to acquire someone at the deadline.

Remember when the Yankees signed Mark Prior to a minor league contract in the offseason? Prior is on the minor league DL yet again with an abdominal injury. He’s pitched a total of 4.0 innings on the season.

Initially it was expected that Eric Chavez could return as early as mid June but he has not yet started running due to a bone bruise in his foot. The setback will likely keep him out of the lineup until late July.

Rafael Soriano has been out for a month and still has not started to throw. He has a history of arm trouble so the team is being cautious with his elbow inflammation. In all likelihood he won’t pitch again until August. It’s starting to seem as though Brian Cashman was right about this one. Remember, he was overruled by ownership. He didn’t want to sign the reliever.

Damaso Marte and Pedro Feliciano, both of whom torn their rotator cuff, have yet to begin and baseball related activities. Marte is expected to be out for the whole season and the Yankees aren’t expecting much, if anything, from Feliciano.

Boston:

Boston had their own scare today as Dustin Pedroia was scheduled to skip tonight’s game to fly back to Boston and have his right knee examined. For much of the morning various reports continued to speculate that if the team were to find something wrong, they’d opt for immediate surgery that would keep the second baseman out for at least a month. Fortunately it turned out to be just a bruised kneecap and he isn’t expected to miss any time.

Reliever Franklin Morales, acquired from Colorado in May, will begin a rehab stint in the coming days with Pawtucket. He could return in the next week or two.

Bobby Jenks, who just came off the DL less than two weeks ago, is again out of action due to tightness in his back. It is uncertain when he will return.

Thursday Rich Hill will undergo Tommy John surgery.

Friday Daisuke Matsuzaka will do the same.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia was back with the team today after spending the night in the hospital with what Terry Francona described as “intestinal turmoil”. Presumably he’ll be out for a few more days but it comes just as he started to figure things out at the plate again.

Junichi Tazawa missed the entire 2010 season due to a torn ligament in his arm but made his first rehab start recently and could return in mid July.